10. Akkadian

What you can read in it: The lingua franca of ancient Mesopotamia, Akkadian uses the same cuneiform alphabet as Sumerian. The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Enuma Elish creation myth and other texts were composed in Akkadian, which has grammar similar to classical Arabic.

Pros to learning it: How impressed will people be when you can read those tiny little wedges? I’d be impressed.

7. Aramaic

What you can read in it: The vernacular of Second Temple Israel (539 BC - 70 CE) and the lingua franca of much of the Near East for centuries, Aramaic is commonly identified as the language of Jesus. Much of the Talmud is written in it, as well as parts of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra.

Pros to learning it: It’s not that much different from biblical Hebrew, so you can kill two birds with one stone. Also, you can pretend you’re talking to Jesus, if that interests you.

Cons to learning it: No one really speaks it anymore, save for a few modern Aramaic communities.

3. Old Norse

What you can read in it: The Eddas, a series of old Icelandic myths, and a bunch of runes and shit. The language of the Vikings, Old Norse was spoken in Scandinavia, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and in parts of Russia, France and the British Isles, and is sort of the predecessor to modern Icelandic.

Pros to learning it: You can pretend you’re a Viking.

Cons to learning it: No one really speaks it anymore.

2. Latin

When: 800 BCE - the Renaissance. The so-called “golden” and “silver” ages of classical Latin spanned 75 BCE to the third century, and eventually the language transitioned into late and medieval Latin in later centuries.

1. Ancient Greek

Who wrote in it: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Homer (in a dialect called Ionic), Herodotus, Euripides, Aristophanes, basically everyone. The New Testament was written in a watered down version of ancient Greek called Koine.

Pros to learning it: You’ll get an intensely larger vocabulary and learn to read a really badass alphabet. Plus, Aristophanes wrote about sex a lot.